Wishes
by Fuyu Tatsu
Summary: 'I wonder what kind of wish was included in your name...' Leave it to Kiri to give a guy doubts.


Wishes

FT: To any Pokémon player who likes to think of the game philosophically (like me); I'm certain that we've thought about this one sentence from the Hoenn Region.

Some foul language. Just warning you.

Brendan is the chara in this!

"_I wonder what kind of wish was included in your name."_

Food for thought.

Kiri was cute, a petite, brown-eyed girl with russet hair. She was sixteen.

Sixteen years old and asking questions -okay not really asking, more like commenting- on my parents' choice of name.

I'm eighteen, and I never thought about it until a sixteen year old pointed it out.

Rayquaza above…

So, naturally, I asked Mom first.

She smiled sweetly.

"Honey, I was unconscious when you were born. Your father named you."

Well… fuck.

So now I had to travel to Petalburg, work my way through a Gym full of arrogant snot-nosed Cool Trainers, and talk to the one man I knew next to nothing about.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Dad, but only because I'm obligated to. I love Mom more than anything, because she was there to give a damn.

My first –clear- memory of my father was when I was nine years old.

He told us that we were leaving Goldenrod City to live in New Bark Town.

Because he had been named Gym Leader in Petalburg City.

Nine years old and that was the first time I remember him actually sitting down with the two of us and talking.

He left almost immediately after, his Pokémon Navigator ringing like mad.

I never felt so betrayed.

Standing in the last room of his Gym (austere, quiet and smelling strongly of male testosterone), I watched my father battle it out with a Trainer. He didn't seem to mind, in fact, he encouraged it, often introducing the Trainers to me if I was there. Like he was trying to foster friendship with up-n-coming Trainers and the former Champ of Hoenn (long story short, I got my ass handed to me by some girl named May who specialized in flying types. Worse. Defeat. Ever.).

As the kid shook my hand, eyes round with shock (I had, after all, become Champ at fourteen, three years younger than my predecessor Steven.), my father quirked an eyebrow at me.

The kid left, and it was quiet in the room, only the somehow distant sounds of the Gym Trainers battling with other kids.

When I asked my question, Dad looked at me with confusion.

"What on earth do you mean?"

"Was there something you wanted out of me when I was born? A potential you wanted reached? A desire? Something?"

"Brendan, we didn't even know you were coming until you were half-way out. We didn't have time to think of things like that."

Oh. Well.

If that isn't a slap in the face with the paddle of cold, hard reality, I don't know what is.

My name, my father told me, was the name of an old classmate of his, back at the Trainer's school in Violet City.

Brendan Wilton, it turns out, was not my Dad's friend.

I sat on the shoreline of Sootopolis, watching the waves, two years and six months after that revelation.

Kiri sat next to me, rolling a Berry between her fingertips.

"So, no wish was included?"

"Nope. Not one." I responded. Six days after my father told me that I was named after his undefeated rival, I started house hunting.

I ended up in Sootopolis because, well, there was somebody there that I could talk to.

One month after I moved here, I stopped calling my father. I still battled him when the little icon came up next to his name, but other than that, we never spoke.

Three months, two weeks and four days after I stopped calling him, my mother said they were getting a divorce. She was moving to Lilycove if I wanted to see her.

Seven months after leaving home, Steven called me to let me know that my father was getting married again. He wanted me at the wedding.

It was sad to think Steven had to play messenger, but I lied and said I was planning a trip around the time of the wedding.

And now, I was sitting in Sootopolis, watching an eighteen year old girl roll Berries.

"Maybe it was better that way." She said finally.

"Why?"

"I had a sort of destiny to fill. You, on the other hand, were free to be whatever you wanted to be."

I cracked a half-smile.

It was one reason why I liked talking to Kiri.

She saw things my bitter-self overlooked.

"Sometimes, when wishes are made, they don't get granted. Maybe that's why you didn't have a wish included. Because your father was afraid it wouldn't be granted." Kiri looked at me.

"Maybe."

"By the way, Brendan… what do you wish for with our child?"

"I wish that he'll never end up like me. Or my father. We need a few more Kiris in this world."

She laughed.

"That's a good wish to have."

So one day soon, after mine and Kiri's child are born, I'll be able to tell them:

"_I wanted you to be kind, and warmhearted… someone who could be depended on when times were tough, and free-minded to pursue your dreams."_

We called her Hope.

FT: You like? Reviews mean love!


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